It’s time for everything to do with Dodger baseball

Hi, everybody! Hopefully you’re aware that in November, Dodger Insider (and every other official MLB blog) switched blogging platforms from WordPress to Medium.

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Corey Seager is a finalist for both the National League Rookie of the Year Award and the NL Most Valuable Player Award, MLB and the Baseball Writers Association of America have announced.

Kenta Maeda is also one of the three NL Rookie of the Year finalists, while Dave Roberts is in the final countdown for NL Manager of the Year.

With Max Scherzer of the Nationals and Kyle Hendricks and Jon Lester of the Cubs announced as finalists for the NL Cy Young, Clayton Kershaw’s streak of five consecutive top-three finishes has ended — though Kershaw still led NL pitchers in WAR despite being limited to 149 innings.

The winner of the NL Rookie of the Year Award will be announced November 14, followed by NL Manager of the Year on November 15, NL Cy Young on November 16 and NL MVP on November 17.(more…)

Kenley Jansen and Justin Turner, who became free agents at the end of the 2016 season, have received qualifying offers from the Dodgers.

Accepting a qualifying offer before the deadline of 2 p.m. November 14 guarantees the player a one-year contract for the 2017 season at $17.2 million. If declined, the Dodgers are still free to negotiate with the player, but would receive draft-pick compensation if either signs elsewhere.

Dodger second-base prospect Willie Calhoun went 3 for 3 with a home run to win Most Valuable Player honors and lead the West team to a 12-4 victory over the East at the Arizona Fall League Fall Stars Game tonight.

Calhoun, who turned 22 Friday, singled and scored in a four-run second inning, hit an RBI single in a four-run third inning and knocked a two-run homer in the fifth. In 2016 with Double-A Tulsa, Calhoun hit 27 homers and 25 doubles in 503 at-bats and slugged .469.

Top Dodger prospects Cody Bellinger and Willie Calhoun are selections for tonight’s Arizona Fall League Fall Stars Game, which will be played at 5 p.m. PDT and broadcast live on MLB Network. Fifteen of baseball’s top 100 prospects were selected for the game — including Bellinger (31) and Calhoun (87).

Joc Pederson (2012) and Corey Seager (2013 and 2014) are Dodgers who have played in recent Fall Stars games. Some of the biggest stars in baseball — Mike Trout, Bryce Harper, Kris Bryant and Nolan Arenado — have also played in it, as well.

Baseball Reference’s Play Index tool is a wonderful thing. It can connect players throughout the history of the game. Like Julio Uriás and Babe Ruth. And it can really tell you how special the Dodger phenom was in 2016.

If we had somehow forgotten, Wednesday’s World Series finale between the Cubs and Indians, an instant classic that will be revisited for generations to come, reminded us of why we invest in a team not only over the course of a season, but of seasons.

Today, on the first day of the rest of our offseason, Dodger Stadium killed us with its kindness, with its beauty, with its perfect backdrop for one day more of baseball, if baseball could only just oblige.

For now, our days and nights turn to other things. So the ballpark waits, patiently, for next year to arrive.

Baseball’s magnum opus, Game 7 of the World Series, takes place tonight — the Cubs and Indians taking their 176 combined years of bridesmaiding to a final contest.

Among other storylines, this will be the final night as a player for David Ross, who has received about as grand a farewell tour as a backup catcher will ever find. Of course, most of that has focused on his years as a Cub, but he spent a plurality of his professional career in the Dodger organization.

The Dodgers signed Ross 18 years ago, days after he was taken in the seventh round of the 1998 draft out of Florida. Only three of the 50 players the Dodgers drafted that year played for the team: first-rounder Bubba Crosby, fifth-rounder Scott Proctor and Ross. At age 21, Ross signed with the Dodgers 15 days before 19-year-old Adrián Beltré made his MLB debut with the team.

Ross would make his MLB debut on June 29, 2002, pinch-hitting for Shawn Green (and striking out) in the ninth inning of a 7-0 loss to the Angels. Beltré played third base, while the Dodgers’ starting center fielder that night was Dave Roberts. Another player in that game, pitcher Terry Mulholland, is now 53 years old.

Ross also happened to be the last Dodger to make his big-league debut before I founded Dodger Thoughts about three weeks later. That might well have been the most noteworthy fact of his first season in the big leagues, if not for the night of September 2.

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